A review by fairyribs
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Before all this, my shoulders burned scarlet. I pealed off the flakes, flicked them into the sink. There were things I felt before the fear. I ate an orange in the sun. Let me tell you how it tasted.” 

This book was spectacular. From the first moment I had finished the first chapter, sitting at the doctor’s office waiting for my name to be called I knew this book would have me in wrapped up around it’s finger. 

So incredibly thought provoking, nuanced and well-written. There were so many moments within the pages of this book where I felt so much sadness for Ansel and others where I was disgusted by him. I felt so much for Jenny, Lila, Izzy, Hazel, Saffy, Lavender, Blue, and Angela. Their lives forever shifted by Ansel and how they came to be defined by him. I think a lot of the obsession that surrounds the current true crime genre needs to be addressed, especially where the victims are forever erased from the discussion, and in turn are sidelined to give men like Ansel the pedestal- where they are poked and prodded (and in the most sickening circumstances, fetishized). 

“It is almost time. A thousand miles away, justice is being served— but justice, Saffy thinks, is supposed to feel like more. Justice is supposed to be an anchor, an answer. She wonders how a concept like justice made it into the human psyche, how she ever believed that something so abstract could be labeled, meted out. Justice does not feel like compensation. It does not even feel like satisfaction. As Saffy takes a long breath of alpine air, she pictures the needle, pressing into Ansel’s arm. The blue pop of vein. How unnecessary, she thinks. How pointless. The system has failed them all.”

As a sociology major, specializing in prison systems, the chapters about the death penalty and its cruelty hit really close to home. There is just so much conversation to be had on the state of punishment, prison abolition and better resources for the community and for children so we can prevent one more Ansel Packer from harming others, from harming themselves, and meeting the fate he (and others like him) ultimately did in the end. Capital punishment and state-sanctioned violence is an important conversation to have.

This was such a remarkable read. If I could give it more stars, I would.
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